New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday rapped
the city police for non-compliance of its earlier directions
asking them to take strict actions to stop sale of tobacco
products within 100 yards of educational institutions and
hospitals saying they are playing with the health of children.

"They have literally done nothing despite our earlier
directions to stop such activities near schools," a division
bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv khanna
said.
The court also asked the University of Delhi to file an
affidavit detailing the actions taken by it to stop the sale
of tobacco products near 86 colleges affiliated to it.

After perusing the affidavit filed by the Delhi Police,
the court said it was nothing but a statistical juggling and
in fact they were playing with the health of children.

The court, which was hearing a PIL filed by World Lung
Foundation (South Asia) on alleged continuing sale of tobacco
products, has fixed the matter for further hearing on July 20.

The court also asked the Delhi government to apprise it
of steps taken in this regard.
The court had earlier directed the police to take strict
action against those who sell tobacco within the prohibited
100 yards of educational institutions and hospitals.

The PIL referred to a new survey which has shown that
out of the 726 educational institutions, tobacco outlets were
near 198 of them. In all, there were more than 300 such
outlets.

The court had asked the police to keep a tab on the
violators.

The court had also asked Delhi University to issue
directions to its colleges to appoint nodal officers to ensure
no tobacco outlet is found within a 100-yard radius of the
campuses.